An
Update on Human Resource,
Financial Administrative Initiatives

Almost
300 staff members filled the Sibley Auditorium, in Bechtel Engineering Center
at noon, Jan. 28, to hear the latest on Berkeley Administrative Initiatives-the
two new computer systems being installed to upgrade and improve campus human
resource management and the Berkeley financial system.

In her opening overview comments, Alison McGill, controller and executive
director of financial and business services, said the current phase of documenting
campus needs is nearly complete. Now, the project team is identifying areas
that may need customization to meet Berkeley's unique needs.

McGill said that the Berkeley Financial System would be implemented first,
with the Human Resources system following three to six months later.

Jack McCreadie, associate vice chancellor, information systems and technology,
discussed "the Winframe solution," which will enable Macintosh
users and those with very old PCs to use the new PeopleSoft systems being
developed.

She said that PeopleSoft has on-line training, and that in addition to
that there will be functional training on both the financial and the HR
systems.

"Staff will gain access to the new systems after they've completed
a training sequence," Schilling said.

She urged people to sign up for classes in Excel, Word and Windows, to
learn the skills needed for the PeopleSoft systems.

In response to an audience member's question about timeline, McGill said
the Berkeley Financial System is scheduled to be up and running somewhere
between October 1998 and March 1999. "We can't have a more precise
date than that until we know how much customization is needed to make the
systems workable for us," she said. "The Human Resources system
will be rolled out three to six months after that."

McGill reiterated that although the PeopleSoft systems have tremendous
flexibility, everyone doesn't need to know everything in order to use the
new systems. She emphasized that no one will be asked to work on the new
systems until they've been trained, and at the same time, people will not
be trained for functions that have no relevance to their work.